See the link for a way to travel in luxury to Vesuvio. It obviously looks like there is an association with the Symingtons. Has anyone had the pleasure of enjoying this train or know anything else about it?

Very interesting. I have been to Vesuvio many times, the last being 11 months ago, and there was no sign of any intention to host visitors on this scale. It has very much been used as a venue for private groups of perhaps ten at most and has no modern comforts so if trains full of visitors expecting a luxury experience are turning up I can't imagine what has been done in such a short time to accommodate them.

Interesting timing of your post and a good article to read. I was chatting with Henry Shotton about this train service last week. He had been on the first service because someone from SFE had had to host the passengers at Vesuvio. Henry had drawn the "short" straw, being forced to endure a luxury train journey with Michelin starred chefs preparing his food.

From the way Henry described it, I learned that the company arranging the train journey is totally separate from SFE. However, the train journey does not have the time to travel up to Barca d'Alva so needs to stop and turn around somewhere in the Douro Superior. The timing of the outbound and return journeys was such that Vesuvio was an obvious station at which to stop - and SFE was very happy to give passengers the opportunity to explore the garden, visit the winery, taste a few ports and to enjoy the view from the terrace. I guess what dictates things is that the train has to follow behind the scheduled passenger service and also has to clear the line in time for the scheduled service to make its return journey.